I got nidan eight or nine months after shodan, and I did not feel it. Not even a little. So I tried to train my way into deserving it, and my back went out. This week's video is about what's actually supposed to change between shodan and nidan, and why trying harder wasn't it. I get into why shod...

In my first Aikido class in Japan back in 1987, I noticed something in the first five minutes that had nothing to do with technique: the senior students were warming up their attention, not just their bodies. This week's video is about what that actually looks like — and the specific routine I st...